Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Dem AG Wanted To Defend Sky-High Carry Permit Fee. Now He’s A Defendant In The Suit

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Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta was named as a defendant Tuesday in an amended complaint challenging Santa Clara County’s fees for concealed carry permits.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) initially filed suit on behalf of several residents of Santa Clara County in September 2025, accusing the county of charging exorbitant rates for applying for and issuing concealed carry permits. The groups filed an amended complaint that named Bonta as a defendant after he sought to become involved in the case.

“After engaging in substantive discussions with the County Defendants, and failing to take corrective action against Santa Clara County, the State of California elected to waive its 11th Amendment immunity and moved to intervene in this action to defend the County’s CCW policy choices (which is itself a policy choice by the State) thus ratifying the County Defendants’ unconstitutional policies, practices, procedures, and customs,” the amended complaint states.

The Second Amendment Section of the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division announced a lawsuit against San Jose, California, in a September press release. In the complaint, DOJ accused San Jose of pricing CCW permits so that they were unaffordable for lower-income residents, with fees reaching almost $1,600.

CRPA President C.D. Michel told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the plaintiffs had noted that the San Jose case brought by the DOJ was similar.

“Interestingly enough, the county is opposing it. They don’t think it’s a threat to argue it’s not a related case,” Michel said. “It’s about the same things that we’re challenging: The psych review exam required for every applicant, not just somebody they might have a concern about, the character reference requirements, the social media review, all of those things are similar in San Jose and ultimately the fees charged, they’re all similar between the Santa Clara lawsuit and the San Jose lawsuit. So I expect that the USDOJ lawsuit and the CRPA lawsuit will be co-managed or litigating those cases will be coordinated by the court. They’ll put them together.”

In the Supreme Court’s official opinion in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas warned that even “shall issue” jurisdictions (which California became after the decision) could face legal action.

“[B]ecause any permitting scheme can be put toward abusive ends, we do not rule out constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry,” Thomas said in a footnote of the opinion released in June 2022.

The city of Glendale, California, announced a similar fee increase in August, jacking the price of an initial application to $1,078, which would come in addition to fees for fingerprinting, a training course and a psychological evaluation.